“We need to be tackling this now. I just see mental health provision getting worse.”

Mr Benjamin was talked out of killing himself – so he’s returning the favour BY: Katie Grant @kt_grant Jonny Benjamin on Waterloo Bridge, where he tried to kill himself Channel 4 On a January morning in 2008 a young man from south London approached the edge of Waterloo Bridge and prepared to throw himself off. Jonny Benjamin […]

RALLY COME & JOIN US: MUN GIVES SUPPORT TO STAND AGAINST ANTI SEMITISM
Anti Semitism is at an all time high.
Rally in solidarity with UKJews
Declare your pride in Judaism. r
There will be big name speakers from both within and from outside
the Jewish community at the rally, including:
Rt Hon Jim Murphy MP – Shadow Secretary of State for International Development
Ivan Lewis MP – Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Henry Ferster – Holocaust Survivor
Jonathan Arkush – Vice President, Board of Deputies
Rabbi Daniel Walker – Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation
Rabbi Amir Ellituv – Sha’are Hayim Sephardi Congregation, Hale
BRING YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY AND SHOW
HOW PROUD WE ARE TO BE JEWISH

Our Aims: About Us

To support users and ex-users of psychiatric services in the Manchester area. The organisation provides a forum for services users to have a bona fide say in planning and provision of mental health services.

Protesters in King’s Lynn fight against mental health service cuts

Protesters took to the streets of King’s Lynn to voice their anger at what they described as “continuous” cutbacks to mental health services in west Norfolk.

Mental health cuts protest

A protest march against cuts to mental health services and the Fermoy Unit at the QEH took place in King's Lynn town centre. Picture: Matthew Usher.

More than 100 campaigners marched from The Walks through the town centre before finishing outside the Majestic Cinema.

Peter Smith, former parliamentary candidate for south-west Norfolk said: “We are in the fight of our lives here.”

The protest was triggered by the Fermoy Unit, an in-patient NHS facility in Lynn for mental health, which campaigners say faces an uncertain future. The unit was briefly closed to new admissions earlier this month, but reopened last week, albeit with fewer beds.

Mr Smith said: “In my lifetime we have never had to fight like this, but what is the alternative?”

But Debbie White, director of operations for Norfolk at the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, said there were now no plans to axe the Fermoy Unit.

She added: “It is right that mental health services should be valued and funded on the same level as acute health services, and it is understandable people feel passionate about the Fermoy Unit remaining open.”

Labour party activist Jo Rust insisted the issue would not disappear. She said: “They have been talking about closing it for a long time. We will fight and we will not let them do that.”

Beth Anthony, 18 of Dersingham, said: “We are here to protest against the continuous cuts to the mental health service, we think it’s unacceptable. My younger brother suffers from poor mental health and has to travel to London... That is to the detriment of my family because we have to pay for him to go down by train every single month.”